Chris Martin Announces Global Citizen 2015

In continuing the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030, Global Citizen and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, have announced Global Citizen 2015, a new 15-year campaign to ensure the upcoming United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are achieved.

Building on the success of the annual Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park, Global Citizen and Chris Martin will stage the Global Citizen Festival in different countries around the world for the next 15 years. These Festivals will bring together global leaders, world-renowned artists and socially-conscious global citizens to track the progress and success of the SDGs. Chris Martin will act as the Festival’s curator over the full 15 years, Richard Curtis will serve as creative director for 2015, and Global Citizen and partner NGOs will coordinate the policy goals. MSNBC will also return as the official media sponsor of the 2015 Global Citizen Festival. The headliners for this year’s Festival will be announced later this year.

2015 is a pivotal year for the movement to end extreme poverty by 2030. This year marks the expiration of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the creation of the SDGs, the world’s ‘to do’ list to address poverty, inequality and environmental sustainability. To ensure these new goals are successful, Global Citizen will work to bring millions of new people into the fight to end extreme poverty, giving them information and avenues for action.

Said Hugh Evans, CEO of The Global Poverty Project, “2015 is a pivotal year to change the future of our people and our planet. In the last 15 years, the world has cut the rate of extreme poverty in half, reached an additional 44 million children with an education, and halved child deaths. But there is still a lot of work to be done. Beginning this year, global citizens will hold our world leaders accountable to the SDGs so that we can see an end to extreme poverty in the next 15 years.”

On the partnership, Chris Martin said, “I, and we as a band, are so excited to be working with Global Citizen. They are passionate about putting equality, fairness and compassion into the world, and improving the quality of life for millions of people around the world whose needs are sometimes overlooked. We are joining their cause because we believe in it, and in them, very much.”

“A transformative and universal Post-2015 Development Agenda, embodied in the new Sustainable Development Goals, can change our future. In 2015 and beyond, we must involve people everywhere in efforts to sustainably transform all lives and ensure a life of dignity for all, whilst protecting the planet,” said Amina J. Mohammed, Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning.

Said Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Richard Curtis, “The Millennium Development Goals have helped save and change millions of lives. I’m thrilled to be part of a project that’s working to make the new Sustainable Development Goals as famous and potent as they can be – we want to be part of the first generation to live without extreme poverty and the first and last generation to be threatened by climate change.”

An initiative of The Global Poverty Project, Global Citizen connects today’s socially conscious citizens with leading organizations and campaigns in the development sector through its platform, GlobalCitizen.org. For the last three years, the organization has hosted the annual Global Citizen Festival on the Great Lawn of Central Park, timed to the United Nations General Assembly, to bring together world leaders, renowned artists, NGOs, and to make a tangible impact. Each Festival offers fans the chance to earn their way into the event by taking actions to help the world’s poor.

Over the last three years, global citizens have taken 1.2 million actions taken in the fight against extreme poverty. These actions have resulted in 54 commitments and policy announcements, including cash commitments valued at US $16.6 billion. Most recently, actions taken around the 2014 Global Citizen Festival are set to affect the lives of 259 million people in some of the world’s poorest countries by 2020.

“We are thrilled to once again be the official media sponsor of the 2015 Global Citizen Festival,” said Phil Griffin President, MSNBC. “Ending extreme poverty by 2030 is an incredibly important mission and we’re excited to get behind it.”

For more information about Global Citizen and the campaign to make the Sustainable Development Goals famous, visit GlobalCitizen.org.

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